The red-blue exercise (a variation of "prisoner's dilemma") is poorly suited for its intended goal of developing skills in conflict management, negotiation, and group dynamics. However, it may be used as an educational tool that illustrates complex systems in action. (SK)

Systems analysis, in this context, is not the process which is the necessary prelude to library automation; it is something more basic. It involves seeking out the fundamentals of a situation and applying scientific methods to their study, to find an optimal solution to the problems facing the manager. (20 references) (Author/TW)

This report, a clear statement of how one district developed a planning system, offers both a theoretical and a practical approach to providing the superintendent, his staff, and the board of education with a comprehensive planning system instrument for making policy decisions and allocating resources. Also provided are guidelines for involving…

OPERATIONS RESEARCH CONCEPTS ARE POTENTIALLY USEFUL FOR STUDY OF SUCH LARGE URBAN SCHOOL DISTRICT PROBLEMS AS INFORMATION FLOW, PHYSICAL STRUCTURE OF THE DISTRICT, ADMINISTRATIVE DECISION MAKING BOARD POLICY FUNCTIONS, AND THE BUDGET STRUCTURE. OPERATIONAL ANALYSIS REQUIRES (1) IDENTIFICATION OF THE SYSTEM UNDER STUDY, (2) IDENTIFICATION OF…

This volume presents background information on the project and explains the needs and decisions that actuated its implementation. First year activities and some preliminary teaching material on the concept of PPB (planning-programing- budgeting) in education are also described. The major focus is on a description of the proposed system, a…

This volume describes an automated procedure for multiyear enrollment forecasting in the Trenton, New Jersey, public schools. Enrollment forecasts generated by this procedure will provide enrollment estimates in each district's instructional program. Data required to operate the forecaster will be collected during the second year of its operation.…

Any general systems approach has five basic elements, which serve as the tasks for the researcher using systems analysis. The five are (1) the objectives, (2) the alternatives, (3) the costs, (4) the model (or models), and (5) the decision rule. With these five steps, the researcher should be able to specify the objectives, select alternatives,…

Under the present practices, the objectives and activities of socially oriented projects have rarely been specified with enough clarity and concreteness. Alternatives have been insufficiently presented for consideration by top management. In a number of cases, the future costs of present decisions have not been laid out systematically enough and…

This paper explores the fault-tree analysis approach to isolating failure modes within a system. Fault tree investigates potentially undesirable events and then looks for failures in sequence that would lead to their occurring. Relationships among these events are symbolized by AND or OR logic gates, AND used when single events must coexist to…

In this era of rapid social change, educational administrators have discovered that new approaches to problem solving and decision making are needed. Systems analysis could afford a promising approach to administrative problems by providing a number of systematic techniques designed to sharpen administrative decision making, enhance efficiency,…

The transition from an elite university to a mass university has characterized modern university life. The purely quantitative development has been accompanied by a number of changes in the decisionmaking system in higher education. No systematic comparative studies exist of the development of the decisionmaking system. A project is under way at…

The demand for administrators and specialists trained in quantitative concepts and skills has increased across the last decade mainly as a result of the accountability movement. Quantitative methods can greatly assist the school administrator in certain decisionmaking processes, although it is essential that he be able to distinguish between those…

This book focuses on and utilizes the methodology and tools of systems analysis and operations research to demonstrate their use in planning for the future and meeting public demands for information on how tax money is being spent by educational administrators. The range of possible and relevant applications is demonstrated by a step-by-step…

This publication explains in detail the money allocations according to program areas. A total realignment from the traditional line-item school budget, this budget follows both the instructional and noninstructional support program areas, each of which is described in the introductory statements. In addition, the budget represents the output of a…

Approximately 2,700 books, pamphlets, and articles from all over the world published before October 1967, are listed in this annotated bibliography on public expenditure decision making. Emphasis is on the economic criteria of decision making derived through use of systematic and analytical methods. Entries are organized into 33 general…